Calliope Hummingbird Gallery
Selasphorus calliope
eBird describes the Calliope Hummingbird as follows: Tiny. Males are distinctive among hummingbirds with streaked red throat; green above and white below with dingy greenish sides. Females very similar to Broad-tailed, Rufous, and Allen’s Hummingbirds. Note tiny size, short tail with little rufous, and finely spotted throat with thin white line above bill. Breeds near clearings and edges in mountainous regions. Migrates south to Mexico and descends to lower elevations in winter. Visits feeders. All About Birds offers this additional descriptive information on the Calliope Hummingbird: Magenta rays burst from the throats of the male Calliope Hummingbird as it dances and hovers, performing U-shaped display dives for females. During these displays he makes a sputtering buzz with tail feathers and gives a sharp zinging call. This is the smallest bird in the United States, yet this tiny hummingbird breeds in meadows and open forests high in chilly Northwestern mountains, and travels more than 5,000 miles each year to pine-oak forests in Mexico and back again.
I was delighted to watch and photograph a female Calliope Hummingbird on my August 31, 2020, visit to Christmas Mountains Oasis. What a cute little hummer!
“Cool Facts” about the Calliope Hummingbird from All About Birds…
- The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the United States. It weighs about one-third as much as the smallest North American warblers and about the same as a ping pong ball.
- This tiny hummingbird is the smallest long-distance migrant in the world. Calliope Hummingbirds travel around 5,000 miles each year in a big oval from the breeding to wintering grounds. They migrate north along the Pacific Coast in the spring, but return to the wintering grounds in Mexico via an inland route along the Rocky Mountains.
- Calliope Hummingbird is named after Calliope, the muse of eloquence and epic poetry, who inspired Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
- Despite their tiny size, these territorial birds may chase birds as big as Red-tailed Hawks during the breeding season.
- While hovering, these birds‘ metabolic rates increase to more than 16 times resting level.
- The oldest recorded Calliope Hummingbird was a female, and at least 8 years, 1 month old, when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Idaho in 2014. She had been banded in the same state in 2007.